Did you ever wish you could somehow combine social media and email marketing in totally new ways? Or pull in reservation information from an internal database and display it, in real-time, in your emails?

Well, good news – that’s all possible. By using API integrations within email campaigns, marketers can tap into a whole new world of opportunities. We recently published an eBook with examples of how brands are using API Integrations in email today and we wanted to continue that by showcasing how this looks in action.

Our product marketing specialist, Steven Joya, put together a brief video that will take you through the history of dynamic email content and how API integrations are implemented from start-to-finish.

If you’re wearing glasses, there’s a good chance you’ve heard of Lenscrafters. You might even be wearing a brand you bought from the company right now. The brand has stores all over the country that sell eyewear products and offer eye exams.

One of the most important marketing tools for Lenscrafters is email. When it’s time for a sale or an appointment reminder, the company depends on email to drive results. That means getting online sales for glasses and, most importantly, getting people to book appointments.

Ivy Inniger, Director of CRM/Loyalty at Lenscrafters North America, wanted to make it as easy as possible to book appointments. To do that, Inniger and the team used Movable Ink’s technology to power custom-built API integrations in an email campaign.

The idea of “dynamic content” in email has come a long way. From flash sales and countdown timers, emails have started to include API integrations that are customized to an individual business level.

Some examples: Airlines are using seating charts within an email to upsell customers in one click. Ticket venues are allowing customers to reserve seats from right within an email and healthcare providers are offering the ability to make appointments at local offices. Retail companies are sending emails with sales that change depending on the time of day.

There are endless opportunities to use API integrations to make email more compelling and personalized. Simply by pulling in data from other channels – whether that’s social media, inventory, local stores, or the website – you can offer a new experience every time.

Want to learn how brands like Lenscrafters, Dunkin’ Donuts, and others are using API integrations in emails today?

It’s easy to get caught up in our daily lives. Take a moment and consider that in a shared world, not everyone has the luxury of equal treatment. It is 2015 and it is easy to be cynical about the slow march of progress.

And then one day, something changes. On a day like today. This battle for equal rights has spanned decades and took immense courage. Movable Ink is proud to celebrate this rainbow-colored day with our brothers and sisters in the LGBT community.

Vivek

“The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

We recently analyzed data from some of the fastest-growing online fashion, accessories, and lifestyle retailers in North America — brands such as Bonobos, Crocs, Trunk Club, The Tie Bar, Live Out There, and Choxi. Our goal was to understand what makes these high performance retailers different from everyone else, and how these differences led to a growth rate that is almost double that of the overall average e-commerce industry.

We supplemented the quantitative findings with insights and advice shared by some of the retailers included in the study. You can learn more and download the full research report here.

This is a guest post from Misha Talavera, cofounder and CMO, NeoReach.

Influencer marketing is changing the way brands interact with communities and customers. A recent study in the Journal of Consumer Research formalized what we all intuitively knew: people form their opinions about products and brands based on the opinions of those they follow on social media.

It’s not surprising then, that 60% of marketers said they will increase their influencer marketing budgets over the next 12 months. (Tomoson)

In spite of its booming growth, influencer marketing is still in its infancy and best practices have yet to be established. Many brand marketers have more questions than answers:

How do I get started?

How do I pick and hire influencers?

What kinds of campaigns yield the best results?

What are the best practices for managing my campaigns?

At NeoReach, we help brands answer these questions and many more every day. After running nearly 100 campaigns with 2,000 influencers for 32 customers, we’re able to define the three essential elements for launching an effective influencer campaign.

Here’s the thing about customer success, customer experience, and the customer journey: once you say it enough times, it doesn’t mean anything.

At Salesforce Connections 2015, the phrase “customer success” was repeated so often that there was a real risk the phrase became more punctuation than anything else. While the keynote from Salesforce President Keith Block offered intense, space-themed videos beckoning marketers to rethink everything – especially the customer journey – the one piece I thought was missing was the next step.

Let’s say you know exactly who your customer is. You know what they tweet, the kinds of content they like, their product history, and what might prompt them to take action.

But now what? If you don’t come up with extremely compelling content that leads to a great customer experience, all that data is just going to help you create personalized messaging that still gets deleted.

On Day Two of Salesforce Connections 2015, one thing was clear: marketers are thinking about personalization. Or, to be more accurate, they’re thinking about how to keep in touch with customers across both physical and digital channels.

During a morning breakout session, “The Strategic Formula for Email Conversion Success,” Jon Powell, the senior manager of executive research and development for MECLABS Institute, explained that people open their inbox with their fingers on the delete key.

“You have to create an immediate personal connection with the customer,” Powell told attendees.

That starts with relevance. And to be relevant to customers, you need to know what interests them. Continue reading →

Maybe you’ve started an Instagram page for your brand, maybe you haven’t. Maybe you’ve already had success with it. Either way, when it comes to Instagram marketing, there are countless opportunities for customer engagement and sales… and things are really just getting started.

Just a few weeks ago, Instagram officially unveiled the first round of advertising API integrations for brands to use. It’s safe to assume that there’s more to come as the platform tweaks how businesses and customers interact and build communities.

That said, there are already a lot of companies seeing success with strategies like influencer outreach, giveaways, and more. Instagram sees more engagement than any other social channel and the best way to build an audience is to build relationships.

We talked to a dozen experts on how to market on Instagram and wrote a guide on the insights they gave us.